Blog of cartoonist Terry Beatty. Terry's credits include THE BATMAN STRIKES, MS. TREE and SCARY MONSTERS magazine. Recent work includes THE ADVENTURES OF UNEMPLOYED MAN, RETURN TO PERDITION and King Features' THE PHANTOM. This blog is devoted to his work and whatever pop culture imagery he finds of interest. Visit his website at www.terrybeatty.com

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

I'm currently working long hours to make a rather tight deadline on the MARS ATTACKS POPEYE comic book for IDW. It'd help if I could skip drawing THE PHANTOM this week. I'm okay with that, as I'm ahead of schedule on the strip -- but it'll throw my household budget a bit out of whack if I do. So -- to make up for the lost income, let's see if I can sell a little original artwork, shall we?

For a limited time, I'm offering these cover paintings for SCARY MONSTERS magazine at lower prices than posted on my website. I do these covers digitally now -- so these are all from the earlier period when I was working with acrylic on illustration board, and represent almost all that I have left. In the nearly 19 years that I've been creating these covers, most have found their way into collectors' hands, and I have very few in my files. All acrylic on 15x20 illustration board, unless noted. All discounted $50.00 from my website prices! Details posted below each pic.

Bert I. Gordon tribute. Back cover images are a paper collage with some overpainting. Sam Scare head in upper right is a paste-up. $150.00

DARK SHADOWS: Sam Scare face is a paste-up. Photo has glare on the right side, background blue is not actually lighter on the right: $200.00

DEATH RACE 2000, etc. Pic does not show pasted-up Sam Scare head added later -- upper right by ITs horn and Caradine's hood. Hey -- it's Dick Miller! $200.00

PIEDRAS BLANCAS, etc.: This also has a small Sam face added to the right of the Gila monster, not shown here. Lettering is all done by hand on the board! And a couple of sexy babes among the creepy crawlies! $250.00

LUGOSI and KARLOFF: Sam face is paste-up. $225.00

KONG VS. T-REX: Colored inks on illus. board. No Sam face! $250.00

KONG! $350.00

MONSTER SQUAD: Game box and Barnabas portrait are paste-ups. $300.00

Add $15.00 to cover shipping/packaging costs. Additional discounts available for multiple purchases. Email me at terrybeatty@mac.com (or message me on Facebook if you're one of my fb friends) to reserve.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Today's Phantom strip has an interesting back story. Yes, it's a retelling of the character's origin -- something that's been done in the strip many times over the years -- often with the introductory caption "For those who came in late," but today's strip was originally intended to have a very different twist.

October is National Arts and Humanities Month , which King Features thought was something worth noting. I agreed. The notion we cartoonists were presented with was to do a Sunday strip without any artwork. The tagline added to all the strips would be something like "Imagine a world without art" -- followed by some official logo and/or link to more information about Arts and Humanities Month. No strip would be obligated to participate -- strictly a volunteer thing.

Our writer, Tony DePaul, had originally nixed the idea of taking part, as a new story would be just starting, and visuals were needed for that first page. But I pointed out that the timing was just right for The Phantom -- The Power House Gang story would have just ended, and we could simply delay the beginning of the new adventure to the next week -- and do our stand-alone "artless" strip this Sunday. I suggested we do the Phantom origin.

Tony agreed and quickly wrote the new strip. I designed it, and turned it in -- minus the official A&H Month tag, which was still under discussion. Here's the "artless" strip as intended to be published today.

But this didn't appear in any newspapers today -- and the only place you'll see it is here on my blog. It seems that not enough other strips decided to take part -- and so the promotion for the event was cancelled. Of course we couldn't have this be published this way then -- and I'd already drawn the next few strips, all dated and delivered. So I had to add art to this artless comic strip.

Which wasn't quite that simple, since this had been written for no art -- and the copy was too heavy to leave (much) room for any drawing in several panels. So Tony did a rewrite to allow room for some imagery -- and, for the first time, I got to draw the origin of The Ghost Who Walks.

So while we didn't get to promote the month long Arts and Humanities event, we did get to do a fun stand-alone strip. I referenced previous versions of this from various Phantom artists, and paid homage to those (sometimes contradictory) versions with a few of the panels. I had a good time with the color, selecting hues from vintage printed strips to make for a "warmer" look to the flashback panels. I think Phantom fans will consider this one a treat -- and of course, next week, it's a NEW ADVENTURE!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Yes, it sounds crazy -- and perhaps it is. Maybe that's the whole point. Martin Powell has written, and I am drawing, a Popeye/Mars Attacks crossover one-shot comic book for IDW. We're both huge Segar Popeye fans, so are going into this with much love and respect for the original comic strip -- and will attempt to stay as close to the classic version as possible. We're also both crazy for '50s sci-fi, Wally Wood aliens and the original Mars Attacks trading cards. Martin's script shows that affection -- and I hope my art (now in progress) will do the same. The deadline's tight, and there is much left to do -- so excuse me while I hit the drawing board!!!

I'll be back in the Twin Cities this weekend, attending FallCon. I'll be doing sketches (yes, you read that right!), signing comics and selling art, as usual. My latest project, MARS ATTACKS POPEYE (yes, you read that right!) has just been announced by IDW, and the writer of that upcoming one-shot comic book, Martin Powell, will be there as well. Stop by and see us!

I'm very much looking forward to spending some time with my daughter and grandkids while I'm back in my old stomping grounds -- and also considering stopping by Memory Lanes on Friday night, since psychobilly band Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dollz are playing a gig there. I'm tempted to stop by my old haunt, Lee's Liquor Lounge to see Trailer Trash, too -- but can't be in two places at once -- darn it!